What’s more enticing than a festival in your own backyard? On a weekend in June 2010, after scarcely two months of preparation, the conductor Ken-David Masur (son of Kurt) and his wife the pianist Melinda Lee Masur launched just such as festival: three chamber programs at the Chelsea Art Museum at Eleventh Avenue and West 22nd Street, with an emphasis on Robert Schumann on his 200th birthday. For good measure, they also included usual suspects like Bach, Mozart, and Schubert, as well as a quartet of living composers. The program for their 2011 Franz Liszt celebration carried an endorsement from the lifelong superstar violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, no less. When the museum closed its doors later that year, the Masurs began branching out to galleries, showrooms, and other unconventional spaces. Their themes grew more inventive, too. “Gravity 250,” anybody? (That one was in honor of Sir Isaac Newton and his likely apocryphal Eureka moment with an apple in 1666). This year’s theme is “Every Story Counts”—a riff on “Every Vote Counts,” conceived as a salute to democracy on the eve of America’s 250th birthday. The concerts—jazz as well as classical—are spread over a week. Novelty seekers should note the world premiere of William Susan’s Clouds and Flames as well as a remarkable 17 New York premieres. From the start, the Masurs have given the visual and culinary arts a fresh downtown platform in Chelsea, too. Their motto, in fact, is HEAR – TASTE – SEE, and yes, the echo isn’t lost on us. So, expect not only great music but lots to look at and plenty of choice eats and sips. —Matthew Gurewitsch